


Moments within the Lethe

by LadybugLies



Series: Sleep Did Not Dream [2]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Drabble Collection, Gen, Hypnos-centric (Hades Video Game), Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Introspection, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, References to Depression, Siblings, mentions of other Hades characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadybugLies/pseuds/LadybugLies
Summary: A collection of works supplementary to "Sleep Did Not Dream" that are moments or thoughts that just didn't make it into the fic for one reason or another.Will likely mostly be rambling drabbles.Ch.1 - He remembers a time... (Hypnos)Ch.2 - Playing Pretend (Nephele)
Series: Sleep Did Not Dream [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174148
Comments: 10
Kudos: 63





	1. He remembers a time... (Hypnos)

He remembers a time long ago when him and his brother would curl up under the blankets, whispering and giggling about anything and everything their little minds could come up with.

He remembers a time when his mother had told him he was important. That he was made for a reason. That he was needed.

Sometimes he wondered when it started. When his brother’s eyes, originally filled with wonder as he spun tales of what he seen in the world of dreams, turned to boredom. Or when they finally turned to distain, where they remained for eternity.

He wondered when he had let the rich, populated fields and forests of the realm of sleep be taken over by the Lethe. Letting the landscapes he spent his whole prior existence building be washed away until there was nothing but him amongst the mists.

He supposed they must have happened at similar times. As Than grew older and disinterested in flights of fancy. As Mother Nyx found more important people to care for. As the sound of tiny, burning feet began to echo in the halls.

It was no coincidence that the Lethe ran through the realm of sleep. Dreams were destined to be forgotten by all but the most stubborn of dreamers. The pains of waking life could be washed away in sleep, if even for a moment.

Forgetfulness. Oblivion. The Lethe was as much a part of him as the Styx was to his eldest brother.

Perhaps that was why he was destined to be forgotten by all he cared about.

After all, what use is Sleep to the ever-moving gods? It was nothing of importance, a luxury to be taken to avoid work. Or a tool to use against them. Something to be forgotten until the next time someone may think him useful.

A convenient tool, but never truly needed.

The Lethe didn’t work on him the same way it did the souls of mortals. The first time that despair enveloped him in ways he could not hide he fled to his sanctuary in Elysium and drank his fill of the river until the tears faded away. He had hoped he could be wiped clean, freed from his traitorous mind to perhaps start anew. Alas, all it did was numb the pain and blur his thoughts until apathy settled upon him.

The feeling had still been addicting enough to repeat.

No one noticed if he was more sluggish. If he started to space out more often. Sounds and colors blurred together more and more, and it was fine. If anything, he was just settling more into the role they already saw him as.

What was the harm in that?


	2. Playing Pretend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A moment in the life of Nephele.

The summer sun shown down upon the small river near the humble farm, the heat doing little to muffle the delighted squeals of the children below. The days chores were done, and the children had decided to cool off and play by the stream as their parents stuck to the shade of their home.

Demetrios bellowed a monstrous growl as he scooped up his little sister, who laughed and shrieked in his work-strong arms.

“Eeek! No don’t eat me!!”

“Ah ha I’ve found you, Minotaur!” Thales, wielding a hefty stick and wearing a bedsheet like a royal cloak, jumped onto a rock dramatically. “Unhand that fair maiden, you monster! Your reign of terror has come to an end!!”

Demetrios hid his grin with his best impersonation of an angry beast, throwing Nephele over his shoulder with another monster growl.

“You will not dine tonight, beast!! For I!!! Theseus!!! Have come to slay you!” Thales waved his stick menacingly in his big brother’s direction.

Nephele couldn’t stifle her giggles as she wriggled in Demetrios’s hold. “Eep! Prince Theseus help! I don’t want to be eaten!!”

With a war cry, Thales leapt down from his rock to chase his brother and sister. Demetrios acted the brute, taking a few whacks from the stick before bellowing another monstrous moo and running into the stream, kicking up water at Thales and climbing up onto another large rock. The youngest brother did not faulter in his chase, using his branch to smack water back at his elder brother.

“Fight me like a man, you FIEND!!”

Demetrios grunted and set Nephele down, making to pounce on Thales, but the little warrior saw through his scheme, dodging to the right to avoid the tackle. They squared off in the middle of the stream, circling each other. The bedsheet Thales was wearing was soaked, dragging behind him in the rocks and mud, but he stood his ground with his stick at ready.

With a growl, Demetrios charged. Thales dodged, smacking him in the side while his brother ripped his play cloak off of him. He let out an absolutely scandalized gasp, attacking Demetrios with as much vigor as any 9-year-old could muster.

Demetrios dodged and took several blows before capturing one of Thale’s thrust under his arm. He bellowed, dramatically swaying and overacting gagging noises before collapsing into the shallow water with a resound “bleh.” Nephele clasped her hands over her mouth tin a vain attempt to stifle her giggles, legs kicking in delight at the display.

Thales laughed, raising his arms in triumph. “I have slain the bull! Crete is free!”

“My hero!” Nephele jumped down from the rock to tackle her brother in a hug, dragging him down into the water.

Things quickly devolved into a splash fight until all three siblings were thoroughly soaked and out of breath. They lay on the soft grass of the shore, drying off and watching the clouds slowly move across the sky.

Nephele hummed, hands folded on her stomach. “You think he was lonely?”

“Hm? Who?” Demetrios rolled his head to look towards her.

“The Minotaur. He was in that labyrinth for so long… It must have been lonely.”

Thales scoffed. “Monsters can’t get lonely.”

She looked over, “Why not?”

“They’re monsters!”

Nephele’s face scrunched up in thought as turned to stare back up at the sky.

Demetrios hummed, “It probably didn’t have the ability to feel loneliness. It was a monster who ate humans. Probably just thought about hurting things, if it thought at all.”

“I don’t get it though, why did he eat meat?”

“Uh because monsters eat meat?” Thales offered.

Nephele huffed. “But he was half bull! That doesn’t make any sense! Bulls just eat grass!”

“Maybe it was the human half, then? I mean it was a curse. Curses can make people and animals to wildly strange things.” Demetrios scratched the side of his nose in thought. “The Gods don’t really need a reason.”

Nephele sighed. “I guess… It’s not a very fair curse though.”

“Oh?”

“King Minos didn’t really get punished… His wife suffered more, right? And she wasn’t even the one who pissed off Poseidon. The king never got hurt or anything, but she had to actually… you know… and had the minotaur. And then he got too big and they locked up her child up in that big maze! … I dunno, even if he’s a monster that seems mean for her.”

Thales and Demetrios were quiet for a moment, contemplating her words. Eventually Thales huffed, though he had a smile on his face.

“You are thinking way too hard about it. It’s just a dumb story.”

Nephele stuck out her tongue at him, who stuck his out in return. Demetrios rolled his eyes at them, but he still chuckled.

“Well I think a lot of these stories mean your actions don’t effect just you, but can end up hurting a lot of people you care about, yeah? The Gods make sure you remember that…”

Nephele rolled onto her side, curling up against Demetrios. “Do you think the gods… hear people like us?”

He ruffled her curls softly. “There’s a lot of humans out there… but yeah. Probably.”

She hummed, the warmth of the summer sun and her biggest brother lulling her to sleep.


End file.
